GERMANY: Teenage gunman in Germany kills 15 in school attack

Record ID: 323199

  • Title: GERMANY: Teenage gunman in Germany kills 15 in school attack
  • Date: 12th March 2009
  • Summary: WINNENDEN, GERMANY (MARCH 11, 2009) (REUTERS) SCHOOL BUILDING WHERE SHOOTING OCCURRED POLICE CARRIING COVERED BODY ON STRETCHER DOWN THE STAIRS IN SCHOOL BERLIN, GERMANY (MARCH 11, 2009) (REUTERS) GERMAN PRESIDENT HORST KOEHLER ENTERING ROOM GERMAN FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN PRESIDENT, HORST KOEHLER, SAYING: "Today is a difficult day for Germany. Those terrible events fill us with horror and sadness. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families and friends. We wish them strength and comfort. I am sure that everything is being done to help those affected. Our thoughts are also with the rescue workers. They are doing all they can. I hope that the seriously injured policemen will recover very quickly. This day also reminds us to think about wether we pay enough attention to those around us." JOURNALISTS LISTENING
  • Embargoed: 27th March 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA8Q0C6AEXEWGLGLD5U6LPCLR8M
  • Story Text: A 17-year-old in black combat gear kills 15 people in southwest Germany in a shooting spree that started at his former school and ended with his death in a shootout with police.
    A 17-year-old in black combat gear killed 15 people in southwest Germany on Wednesday (March 11) in a shooting spree that started at his former school and ended with his death in a shootout with police.
    The gunman, identified by police as Tim Kretschmer, entered the Albertville-Realschule in Winnenden, a town of 27,000 near Stuttgart, at about
    30 a.m. (0830 GMT) and began firing with a 9 millimetre Beretta pistol at students in a classroom.
    He killed a total of nine students, eight of them female, and three women teachers, as well as one person in front of a psychiatric clinic opposite the school, before fleeing with a hostage in a car hijacked at a local supermarket.
    Police said most of the victims at the school had been killed by shots to the head, suggesting the gunman had not shot indiscriminately.
    He died hours later in a shootout in Wendlingen, some 30 km (20 miles) from the school, after killing two men in a car dealership. Those killings brought the death toll to 16, including the gunman, who police believe shot himself.
    The shooting is the latest in recent years to shock Germany. In 2006, a masked man armed with rifles and explosives attacked a school in the western town of Emsdetten, wounding 11 people before killing himself.

    "Today is a difficult day for Germany," German president Horst Koehler told reporters in Berlin. "Those terrible events fill us with horror and sadness. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families and friends. We wish them strength and comfort... This day also reminds us to think about wether we pay enough attention to those around us," Koehler added.
    In April 2002, Germany suffered its worst school shooting when a gunman killed 17 people, including himself, at a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt.
    The killing spree on Wednesday followed a rampage in the United States on Tuesday (March 10) in which a gunman shot dead 10 people then killed himself in southern Alabama.
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